I'm Just a Woman Who Arranges Things...

If you are really quick and head over to French Kissed you might still be in time for her freebie: a scan of a lovely Valentine postcard for you to use as you wish...she emailed mine to me this morning and its gor-gee-ous!
She also has a 'Caption Contest' going on...I love Caption Contests, possibly a left-over of our mad Church youth group when I was a teenager, when the older students held them regularly and gave weird prizes, like a voucher to wear pyjamas to Church, or be taken out for a pizza by the committee! Tricia's prize is much more rational!

I made another pin cushion, embellishing it from my bead stash.
And by the way if you like pin cushions, check out this site. Its positively 'droolable'! So many ideas for using scraps to make something pretty.

If you are wondering about the post title- firstly do you recognise it???
Secondly, this is what I did this morning to cheer me up...none of the family have seen it yet so there could be ructions later...they get awfully tired of me moving all the furniture around!

My favourite place to sit, as you can tell! Very battered sofa inherited from my Great Grandmother:
This sofa has been in the kitchen since the summer and although useful, I was afraid it would get spoiled, so to fit it in is really why I had to move everything else. And, as you can see, the Hub got another load of firewood yesterday!
This sofa is really the root of the problem as it is so huge. When we bought it the Hub lay down on every sofa in the store to find one he could lie on at full length in comfort. But it wouldn't fit in the rented house, so had to be wrapped up in layers of plastic and delivered to the windowless, rubble strewn half built house! It was very amusing even at the time.
And back to the beginning. I didn't get as far as tidying the mantelpiece, job for another day.
And then I got out my stack of velvet pieces as I thought of making simple cushion covers from them. I love the colours so much that I've hesitated to cut them up until the right idea came to me. They are actually from an old furnishing sample book someone was throwing out.

Cushion Top No. One:

Cushion Top No. Two:

I thought of putting them in my Etsy shop, but am wondering whether I'll be able to part with them when they are finished...They are very tactile and comforting.

I'll stop now before you fall asleep, I've some funny stories I'll tell yous tomorrow!

Of Wrist-Warmers, Pin Cushions and Beads...

'Leg warmers for the arms,' sez Dilly. 'Wrist warmers,' sez I. Funky enough for a Drama student? There was I trying to take photos and she wouldn't stay still...the button doodahs? I got that idea from Jane's wild use of buttons! This is my pin cushion which I made about fifteen years back:
...and here's one I made this morning for fun, with vintage beads and some trimming I found.
I'm going to put it in my Etsy shop later as I'm really happy the way it turned out.

Ages ago Paulette gave us a guided tour of her bead stash, which gave me serious jealousy issues. Since I had my own stash out this morning I thought I'd show you, though its not a patch on Paulette's lovely selection.

S'il vous plait, regardez le tres elegant cardboard box, dans which resides a veritable Aladdin's cave of sparkling....you get the gist...

Et voila, les beads extraordinaire!

You see the old containers- match boxes, tins, Cadbury's Choc box? Isn't it just wonderful?

And the blue satin with all the beads sewn on in leaf and flower motifs?
Would you like the story?

About 1994 ish some ladies were helping an older lady to move from her home into sheltered accommodation, and in order to both reduce the amount of belongings and pay for the move she decided to sell some of her things. I think she hadn't thrown out a single thing since the 1920s so you can just imagine the amount of 'stuff'.

She had, apparently, gone out to East Africa as a bride before 1910, complete with trousseau, and since she was marrying a settler and was an excellent seamstress herself, her trousseau included a number of evening gowns, of which I believe the beaded blue satin to be part of a bodice. From what little I know I think most of the beads are from around the '50s.

One of the ladies gathered all the beads as well as a bag of embroidery transfers and gave me first refusal. I was delighted and have so enjoyed using them, for the 'now' and for the history attached. I hope, when I meet Nancy Rainbow in the 'Hereafter' that I can tell her I put her stash to good use!

This is an evening clutch bag I made for Sos to go with the dress she wore for her 18th birthday last March, using some of the beads and sequins.

And there you have my bead story!